Posted on 04/23/2003 3:02:00 AM PDT by Lorenb420
York Region's acting medical officer of health says a doctor who was "obnoxious, threatening and belligerent" still doesn't understand that he endangered the public.
Dr. Hanif Kassam responded yesterday to reports that a 31-year-old doctor, isolated at Sunnybrook hospital with SARS, now demands an apology from the region for suggestions he knowingly put people at risk.
"He's obviously in denial," Kassam said. "He still doesn't understand the gravity of the situation." He said his staff has information that the man was obviously sick with SARS-like symptoms at weekend funeral events.
"He had symptoms, even according to his mother," Kassam said. "Family members and others at the funeral noticed he was ill and that he should have sought medical attention earlier."
The man's behaviour was "nasty" when officials presented him with Section 22 of the Health Protection and Promotion Act forcing him into quarantine, Kassam said.
"This particular individual was very nasty to my staff. He was very upsetting. He did not even sign the order indicating to me that he may not understand the gravity of the situation."
Kassam said the man later contacted the region's lawyer and agreed to comply.
"It was only the next day when he had the opportunity to think the situation over that he realized that he put so many at risk," Kassam said. The man may have exposed as many as 200 people to SARS.
Health officials are asking anyone who visited the Ward Damiani Funeral Home in Woodbridge on Good Friday and Saturday, or attended a Saturday funeral mass at St. David Parish in Maple to contact them.
So far in York Region there are 51 probable SARS cases, 35 suspect and about 350 people in quarantine.
If quarantined patients must sign forms, and given reports the SARS virus can stay alive on inanimate objects for 24 hours, won't the papers (and possibly the pens) help spread the virus, too?
See post #5. If the virus can stay alive on inanimate objects for only 24 hours, there is nothing to worry about. It takes much longer than that to ship merchandise here from China.
I thought the same thing.
Denial - or is that being confused with a critical review of the facts?
Many who are discounting the potential of SARS are ignoring the fact that information spreads so much faster today than any illness possibly can. This was not true just a short decade ago.
Does anyone know how long previous epidemics swirled around in relatively isolated pockets before becoming national or worldwide threats? I doubt it. The SARS stats currently being reported may seem too little to be of great importance, but early numbers in previous epidemics probably would have appeared insignificant also, if instant international publication had been possible back then.
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